Coming off a rough loss to the Phoenix Suns, the Los Angeles Lakers went on the road on Saturday night to face the red-hot Utah Jazz.
The Lakers had to do so without their best player in LeBron James, who sat out with an ankle issue. As a result, the Jazz came away with a 132-123 victory.
With James out of the lineup, the Lakers started a backcourt of D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves and they were the team’s only sources of offense early, scoring the first 19 points.
The Jazz were making it a point to double team Anthony Davis early, so he was doing what he could to find open shooters with Taurean Prince and Max Christie connecting from deep.
After missing the last five games with a calf strain, Rui Hachimura returned and made an immediate impact off the bench with a thunderous dunk. A buzzer-beater by Russell then capped off a quality first quarter for the Lakers, leading 39-31.
Russell stayed hot to begin the second with a pair of buckets to extend the lead to double digits. Christian Wood also got in on the action with five quick points, including a 3-pointer.
The 3-point shot was keeping the Jazz in it though with both Lauri Markkanen and Jordan Clarkson connecting from deep to bring their deficit back to four.
Davis had a nice putback dunk to end the half, sending the Lakers into the locker room with a 67-64 lead.
Davis came out aggressive to begin the third quarter with four straight points, although the Jazz got hot from deep again to take the lead. Things got a little bit chippy from there with both teams unable to stop fouling, while Russell continued his strong offensive performance for L.A.
Markkanen was a tough cover for the Lakers though, continuing to get to the foul line and find his teammates for open triples to take a 100-95 lead at the end of the third.
Hachimura had a nice steal and a slam dunk to begin the fourth quarter, but the Lakers continued to struggle to keep Utah off the free throw line. Hachimura had it going offensively though, getting L.A. back within three.
Davis and the Lakers struggled offensively in the fourth quarter though, and Reaves eventually fouled out with the Jazz continuing to get a very strong whistle.
Things got away from the Lakers late with a few turnovers and then Collin Sexton threw down a thunderous dunk to effectively put the game out of reach.
Russell did what he could to keep the Lakers in it, but it wasn’t enough as they would go on to suffer the loss.
Russell finished with a season-high 39 points, while Davis had a triple-double with 15 points, 15 rebounds, 10 assists and four blocks despite struggling from field at just 5-for-21.
Up next for the Lakers
The Lakers return home on Monday night to face another red-hot team in the Oklahoma City Thunder, who they have already split two matchups with this season.
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